Timothy took hold of their bowls of ice cream. Together, they went out to the sun-lit deck that stretched right across the water of the ocean.
Liana sighed with pleasure when she got her first taste of ice cream. It was the real deal—a tub of vanilla ice cream from a shop near Chameleon Coffee, where a hipster cat shifter with bristling whiskers prepared fresh, handmade ice cream in five different flavors every day.
There were dark spots of real vanilla beans in it. The ice cream melted luxuriously on her tongue, rich with real cream from a nearby farm on the mainland.
She smiled as she watched Timothy enjoy his own dessert. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she feared if the game went under.
In the end, it was just a game, just a job.
And she could make new memories with her new life. Find new friends. Get attached to real dragons instead of virtual ones.
Although she couldn’t imagine that the real dragons she knew would let her dress them up with all sorts of crowns and armor and ribbons of silk...
She giggled softly at the thought.
Timothy had pulled out his phone and was hastily typing away at an email, but now he looked up.
“What’s so funny?” he asked, his eyes suspiciously narrowed.
“Oh, nothing,” Liana said innocently.
Then, before Timothy could get her to confess her terrible mental image, she jumped up and grinned at Timothy.
“First one in the water gets to finish the tub tonight!”
She’d made it to the stairs leading into the water before Timothy’d even gotten up.
The water was empty for as far as she could see.
With a teasing grin at Timothy, she pulled off her shirt and the white skirt she’d worn—and then wiggled out of her underwear.
Timothy froze in place, his eyes going wide and dark. Through the pulsating mate bond, she could feel the sudden heat of his desire. The sensation was overwhelming. Even now that they were mated, it made her feel breathless, her chest tight with need for his touch.
Instead, she went down the stairs until she stood in the water.
“I win,” she called out softly, her heart pounding in her chest when Timothy came after her at last.
“No. I win,” he said huskily as he stared at her, and then he stripped as well.
He didn’t even bother with the wooden stairs. He plunged straight into the water, splashing her.
Liana laughed as she brushed her now-wet braids out of her face. And then she joined Timothy in the water
Breathless and flushed with need, she let the ocean carry her for a moment. The water was clear and calm. There were no waves, the surface reflecting the sky like a mirror.
Then Timothy reached out for her hand. Together, they dived.
It had shocked her the first time she’d tried it. She could stay underwater for a long time now—but as an average human who’d never been a particularly great swimmer, the human part of her was still scared of drowning.
As the lady of the water, her body didn’t feel the need to breathe when she was in her ocean dragon’s element. Which was just what she’d once hoped for. It was an amazing power.
But it took a lot longer for her human brain to come to terms with it. The first time, as soon as she’d realized that she’d stayed underwater for way too long, instinct had kicked in and she’d hastily made her way back to the surface, gasping for air that she didn’t even need.
Little by little, she’d learned to relax and trust the water.
The last time, she’d played underwater with Timothy and a group of dolphins for what must have been at least twenty minutes.
And this time... Maybe this time, her human brain could fully relax into the embrace of the water. Because the ocean was glorious.